My content was originally created in Word 2003, and I used
the autonumbering feature to incrementally number the image
captions throughout (Figure 1, 2, 3, etc.). (I have about 9 topics)
After importing into RH7 HTML, these are now just static text. I am
updating from now on in RoboHelp, and am inserting new images in
the middle of topics. This means all subsequent images must be
renumbered. Is there a way to do this throughout a topic or
globally?

Seems an authoring tool ought to have this feature, but I
can't find any mention of it. Anyone know?

You said:
Seems an authoring tool ought to have this feature, but I can't
find any mention of it.

While RoboHelp is certainly an authoring tool, bear in mind
that it is an
on-line authoring tool. Numbering captions may make total sense in a
printed world, but not so much so in an on-line world where topics
may be arrived at in many different ways.

You haven't missed anything. There is no such feature I'm
aware of in RoboHelp HTML.

There's no such feature, and, as Rick mentioned, it's not as
useful on-line. I do have a suggestion, however: create a new topic
called "Images," but
don't insert it into your TOC. Instead, use it to store your
list of images and caption numbers if you decide to continue
numbering them. The file can serve as your reminder for which
number comes next.

This issue should not be viewed lightly. I have the same
problem. Because we use RH as a SINGLE-SOURCE authoring system, I
am generating PRINT output as well as CHMs. I am criticized here
because in the printed output the tables and figures are not
numbered (and thus there is no "table of figures" either)--normally
required in our engineering environment. The amount of change and
the size of the docs makes maintaining a list and renumbering is a
time-consuming work-around for all products.
Every so often I research to see if this feature has been
added. I would like Adobe to know that just as their docs refer to
Figure 1, etc. (as seen when I research the Knowledge Database) so
do our docs and we cannot currently use RH to do this. So THIS IS A
DESIRED FEATURE for PRINT output. Thanks, kb

Sorry, but I'm not seeing anything in this thread that
indicates you have been criticized. Where did that come from? Or
did you mean you were being criticized at your workplace because
RoboHelp doesn't have those features? If you want Adobe to consider
those features, you need to make them aware of the need by
completing a wish form.

You should also keep in mind that RoboHelp is now part of the
Technical Communication Suite, which includes FrameMaker, RoboHelp,
Captivate and Acrobat. In a case such as yours, where Print seems
to be a critical piece, you may wish to consider the suite and
configure the workflow to be as follows:
* Edit and maintain your docs in FrameMaker. This would
provide the print features you want.
* Use RoboHelp to handle converting the Frame information to
On-Line.

Yes, I'm aware that RoboHelp has always been advertised as a
"Single Source" tool. But when push comes to shove, it's far from
perfect for being a one size fits all solution. For what it is,
it's darn good and many are happy with it. But I stand by what I
said earlier that its primary function is for On-Line systems. I
think sometimes marcomms puts too much em-pha-sis on the wrong
syll-a-ble.

I figured that kbbbbb was being criticized at work. I've
worked briefly in an engineering group, and I can imagine them
looking down at the documentation force and saying, "Why can't you
do something as easy as numbering?"

I think the crux of the problem lies with HTML. I still don't
fully understand how the ordered list tags work, but I've learned a
lot recently. And it seems that when you start a new ordered list,
then it starts at 1 (or whatever you define it to be). So, if you
create one ordered list and then include other paragraphs, then a
new ordered list will not pick up where you left off.

You can fix this by putting the entire text inside an ordered
list tag. I don't know all of the problems this could cause. You
only have one ordered list, but you can put an ordered list inside
of it. This might cause some confusion for future editors.

For another, a paragraph inside an ordered list defaults to
being indented. With style sheets, this might not be an issue.

So, you may be able to create autonumbered captions by
framing your topic within ordered list tags. But, I fear that if it
were that easy, then Adobe would have incorporated this. Perhaps
this is not a good idea, but at least you can see how it works.

If you'd like to see my experiments on this topic (as I hate
to talk about something I'm unsure of), see the code below.

Kevin Elmore:
Although forum topic hijacking is not good practice (it's
dealing with caption numbering, not list numbering), here's your
answer anyway. You need to manually clean up RH's helpful way of
ending lists when it senses an interruption, by removing the
extraneous <ol> and </ol> tags to keep the text and
other lists within the "outer" list wrapper, as in the attached
code.

kbbbbb:
As long as you're producing the PrintDoc as a single file,
open the Word file and change the formatting to Outline Numbered
for whatever style you're using for the figure captions. Hardly
seems like a "time-consuming work-around," don't you agree? I just
tested it on a Note style (took a few seconds) and it works just
fine.

I was not attempting to hijack the thread. The original
problem was a lack of captions. I figured the problem was not so
much with RoboHelp but with HTML. The only way I know in my own
limited way to produce automated numbers is through ordered lists.
If there is another way to simulate captions within HTML, I do not
know it.

And so, faced with a distinct lack of captions, I merely
tried to offer a possible solution, though I admit that I am not
fully aware of the limitations of the ordered list. I figured that
one can simulate a caption autonumber by using the ordered list,
though it does have its own limitations, as seen in the second part
of my example.

While this orginal thread is from 2008, I would also appreciate to ask if AutoNumbering Image Captions, Table Captions could be added to Robohelp. We are currently also trying to minimise duplication of work for Print and Online help by using the same core content for both output formats.

I guess though this would be somewhat challenging to implement unless you have the ability to autoreplace certain text that references the caption when making print documentation with something else for online of product help.

ie: something like:

Use tags to define the output type and then a user variable to define the content for either online or print output...

Example when referencing an image in print we will often say "...as shown in figure xxx." Whereas for online help we may say "... as shown below."